Particle spectra from dark matter annihilation: Physics modeling and QCD uncertainties

Abstract

In this talk, we discuss the physics modelling of particle spectra arising from dark matter (DM) annihilation or decay. In the context of the indirect searches of DM, the final-state products will, in general, undergo a set of complicated processes such as resonance decays, QED/QCD radiation, hadronisation and hadron decays. This set of processes lead to stable particles (photons, positrons, anti-protons, and neutrinos among others) which travel for very long distances before reaching the detectors. The modelling of their spectra contains some uncertainties which are often neglected in the relevant analyses. We discuss the sources of these uncertainties and estimate their impact on photon energy spectra for benchmark DM scenarios with mχ ∈ [10, 1000] GeV. Instructions for how to retrieve complete tables from Zenodo are also provided.